ATB Five Ounce Silver Coins

The price of Ag has to stay under consistently $30/oz for the price drop to $205 to happen. I was planning to snag the last two P pucks this weekend decided to get another bullion set of the same two designs for $165/each instead today. It is a $65 spread, and the bullion will be 5K lower than the vapor blasted if they sell out by this time next year. No brainer.

The thinking seems to be if Ag was on a pricing grid, the Mint would have to price silver items competitively, since a fixed price schedule would guarantee a certain percentage of the premium which is usually proportionally larger than the equivalent gold and platinum products and vastly outsell the same by at least a 20:1 margin. It's the guaranteed profit margin on the silver they can write in advance into the books, whereas that's not really true for pt and au with a constantly shifting price structure. That's what I believe the accountants and forecasters told the Mint what they must do in order to remain 'profitable.'

A pricing grid for the 5oz makes a lot sense, since it's done for 1/10th oz of gold. Perhaps if they priced one silver item this way, a slippery slope argument could made for pricing ALL of the silver products on a grid, some of which are probably sacred cash cows at the Mint: the annual proof/burnished ASEs, the commemoratives with their surcharges, and to a lesser extent the proof silver sets. All of these are in the Top 5 of sales and popularity. Of course I haven't even mentioned the special silver ASE sets, if the pricing yoyo'd up and down during the month of opportunity, the Mint could have more irate than satisfied customers, and one of their hot button issues is the spotty customer service. Still, you are right, they should get their act together, suspend the 2012s and get them down accordingly. It is probably too late for the 2011's though.

Ideally I would like it for all of them but I definitely agree it will never happen. To me they could avoid the slippery slope by saying 5oz silver or greater. Or really just by saying no were not doing it for anything else. Its not like people would stop buying ASEs if they didnt do anything but the pucks could use some help getting the sales up.

At that price they can have them. Maybe they do want to kill the program. With shipping that would be $50 an oz. Reminds me of the overpriced proof sets I bought from them years ago.

I'm sure people will weigh in saying silver is going to hit $50 in 2013 but I just don't see it. Even the buying frenzy going on right now is not causing the price to rise. APMEX lowered the price $1 per oz and sold 15000 2012 ASE's over the weekend. Many other big dealers are out of stock but silver keeps moving lower. Maybe I'm wrong. Time will tell. Either way I will buy more in the low 20's or sell off at $50. It's a win, win situation. I know if silver hits $25 an oz these will sell for that on the secondary market.

Theyre pretty much doing with this series what every failing business does when slows are sale, raising prices so you make more off of what you do sell which further drives down sales. With those prices I dont see the P pucks lasting through the year, some of them may not break 5k in sales. I'm also betting theyll be cheaper on the aftermarket when people go to resell and find out no one wants to pay 50 dollars an ounce for them.

If the mint is trying to go the way of having a high numismatic value for the coins like the coins from the Perth Mint then EVERY design has to be absolutely stunning, its not. Theres a couple where they picked easier to draw designs than the best proposed and laziness and high premiums dont go hand in hand. They were fun while they lasted